Sepp says Sorry to Socceroos

World soccer boss Sepp Blatter has offered Australian fans an apology and said the Socceroos should have gone through to the World Cup quarter-finals instead of Italy.

Millions of Australians were stunned on June 26 when Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo awarded Italy a dubious penalty against defender Lucas Neill in the dying seconds of its final-16 encounter with Australia.

Fans were disgusted at what appeared to be a dive by Italy's Fabio Grosso to win the penalty that took his team to the quarter-finals en route to the World Cup.

Governing body FIFA stood accused of turning a blind eye to the problem of diving and faking injuries, or simulation.

In an interview to be aired on The World Game at 2pm on SBS today, Blatter concedes referees at this year's cup finals "were not at their best" but said the antics of players was the real problem.

"I think there was too much cheating on the players' side," Blatter said.

Interviewer Les Murray then told Blatter millions of Australians had been "shocked by the amount of simulation" at the World Cup.

"I agree with them and I would like to apologise (to) our fans in Australia," Blatter said.

Neill welcomed Blatter's apology but warned the situation appeared to be getting worse. "It's pleasing to see FIFA is at last acknowledging and paying more attention to the issue," he said.

Blatter praised the Socceroos.

"They were great," he said. "The Socceroos … should have gone into the quarter-finals because they were up to beating Italy."

As a Scotsman, I can identify with these kinds of moral victories. Interesting but irrelevant. Pretty much what the North Vietnamese Colonel in peace talks at the end of the Vietnam war said to the American Colonel who claimed that the North Vietnamese had never beaten the Yanks in battle. History will always show that Italy went on to win the World Cup in 2006.